Hello everyone, this is my first post here. I’ve listened to the show for a long time, and now that I’m having some car trouble, I’m hoping I can get some help. I’ve had my Volvo 240 for about four years now, and since I bought it, my A/C has never worked. All of the fans and compressors sound like they work, but it only blows hot or, at best, room temperature air. This year it’s been especially hot so I thought I’d take it in and get it fixed, but my mechanic isn’t authorized to work on systems that us r-12 coolant. I can convert it myself, or at the very least drain it, she said, but she can’t get involved with working on r-12. I thought I’d try to do it, but when I open the hood, I have no idea what it is I’m looking at. Can anyone perhaps provide a diagram and some instructions on what to look for and how to drain the system? Thanks.
-Conor
I strongly suggest that you don’t attempt this yourself. You can easily damage the system, injure yourself, or both. Take it to an auto air-conditioning shop for an estimate.
I’ve done work on this vehicle before. Oil changes, the water pump, that sort of stuff. I’ve never worked on an A/C system. Really, I just want to bleed it so that they can finish the conversion to the new coolant.
Bleeding freon into the atmosphere is against federal law and is punishable by a huge fine and possible prison time. You need to take it to someone who has the equipment to evacuate and pull a vacuum on the system to assure the system works correctly when it’s recharged. A/C systems are much more complicated/dangerous than doing oil changes and water pumps.
Alright, well thank you all for the help. I was hoping that I could take care of this myself, but since not, I’ll call up a mechanic that should be able to do it, if more expensively.